In the book, Msgr. Ganswein responds to 19 questions from children, including the title query, which we’ll return to in a moment. But first, Schropf, who is a journalist, explains on the back cover that children sent in more than 150 questions. The only question the papal secretary absolutely refused to answer, she said, was: “What is the pope’s phone number?” Msgr. Ganswein told her, “If I reveal that, the telephone would ring day and night and the Holy Father would never get any rest.”

As for the red shoes, Msgr. Ganswein wrote that the pope’s cassock and zucchetto are white, “but all the accessories are red,” including the shoes, because red is the color of martyrdom and the pope is the successor of the martyred St. Peter. Also, he said, “red is the color of burning love, the color of the fire of the Spirit.”

Two questions elicted particularly brief replies: First, what was the pope’s fourth-grade report card like? “Unfortunately, I don’t know, but I’m convinced it would have been excellent.”